Abstract

According to the problems of cadmium contamination in soil at Mae Sot district, Tak province. This study attempts to examine the shift of active microbial population according to cadmium concentration variation around the zinc mine by using RT-PCR of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene and DGGE profiles analysis. The results showed that the amount of total cadmium and zinc was in the range from 1.1 to 34.95 mg/kg soil and from 27.05 to 1998 mg/kg soil, respectively. At the highest cadmium concentration (34.95 mg/kg soil) the highest diversity index was obtained. Cluster analysis from DGGE pattern indicated two different clusters in the samples. The two soil samples with the cadmium amounts were similar to the EU Maximum Permissible level (3.0 mg/kg soil) belonged to one cluster and the leftovers belonged to another. The Pearson correlation between the diversity index and cadmium values were significantly positive.

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